Mobile telephonic devices (MTD) such as cell phones and phone-enabled Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) are connected to a wireless network where one or more such devices communicate voice or data to each other or to external services. Services can include making external phone calls to land-line voice networks, making phone calls to other cell phones, leaving or retrieving voice mail messages or exchanging data messages, such as e-mails, text messages, pages and others. Such devices send and receive a variety of communications in a variety of formats. Such devices can also track appointments and store electronic notes. All of the communications, appointments and notes are logged within the device. Text is entered into the device by a user through a keypad.
There is a tendency for such devices to provide more features and larger displays in smaller form factors. As such, available real estate shrinks for other needed elements, such as the keypad or a keyboard. Some devices have only a numeric keypad or a keypad which does not provide a full complement of keys for a QWERTY-styled keyboard layout. There is a need to provide access to a larger set of keys for such keypads.
As such, there is a need to address deficiencies in the prior art.